7 Creative Ways to Keep Workers Focused During the Holidays

The holidays are a great time for family and friends–but work often suffers because employees have their attention pulled elsewhere. If you want to ensure your workplace continues to run smoothly, here are seven ways you can get creative about keeping your employees motivated to get the work that needs it and still have fun.

 

1- Recognize the Holiday Season

You don’t have to pretend that the holidays are not happening. The easiest way to keep employees motivated during this time is to let them know that you recognize and celebrate all of the end-of-year holidays with them.

 

2- Provide Motivation Through Keynote Speakers

A great way to ensure that your team stays motivated all year long is to provide a little time to listen to a keynote speaker. These motivational speakers can help your workforce feel seen and give them a confidence boost that they may need to work hard throughout the holidays for your company’s greater goals.

 

3- Provide Support for Seasonal Hiccups

If you have run a business for over a couple of years, you know what you can expect to go wrong during the holiday season. This is the time to give yourself options to manage any of these seasonal hiccups before they present themselves. Depending on your business type, this could be anything from adding more customer service support staff to providing temporary workers to cover the extra workload.

 

4- Make the Workplace Festive

You don’t have to leave your festive mood at home. You can also bring a festive spirit into the office. This can be done in several ways, from offering regular sweet treats to hosting giveaways. Making the holidays festive in the office should inhibit the workday, but it should enhance it to keep your employees working hard.

 

5- Respect Everyone’s Time and Plan Ahead

There will be plenty of requests for time off throughout the holiday season, which can put stress on managers and leaders trying to figure out how the schedule will work. Make sure that you allow your employees to plan their time off well in advance and give yourself a cushion in case last-minute absences happen.

 

6- Eliminate Busy Work

In your company, tasks are likely assigned that give somebody something to do. If you have some of these tasks, the holiday season is the time to eliminate them, or at least deprioritize them until the new year. This will put every employee on the tasks that must be completed for the year’s end.

 

7- Keep Everyone Moving

One other way that you can keep your workers motivated throughout the holiday season is to keep them moving. This can be done by creating step goals or tracking for willing employees, and then providing a prize for the top movers for the season. This can motivate many of your employees who may feel like they are overindulging in holiday sweets.